Interview with Sophie, 18-19, White British, lower middle class. Women, Risk and Aids Project, Manchester, 1989. Anonymised version including fieldnotes (Ref: AMD08)

This interview is part of the Women, Risk and Aids Project (1989-90) archive which was created as part of the Reanimating Data Project (2018-20).Anonymised transcript of an interview with a young woman (Sophie) living in a village near Doncaster, who has moved around (largely in northern England) due to her father's work as a managing director. She went to a private school, but started her A levels a year early thanks to her high grades achieved at O level. The school was 'very academically minded', compared to another local girl's school that focused on female domesticity. She aspires to be a beauty therapist, against the wishes of her father. Her sex education at school was largely biological, with brief coverage of AIDS, STDs, birth control in sixth form. As an all girls school, and being split into small groups, she found it easier to discuss these topics. She has had two sexual relationships with males, the first of which left her feeling used and disappointed (a short relationship where he 'only wanted one thing'). There was a lot of pressure from female peers to lose her virginity. She hasn't used any barrier methods of contraception, but has been relying on the pill which she was using for her bad period pains - she would be to embarrassed to proffer a condom, but had bought some from a chemist for a girl's holiday abroad as a precautionary measure. Pregnancy is deemed a higher-risk than AIDS or other diseases, perhaps in part because AIDS, unsafe (unprotected) sex and promiscuity was associated with gay or bisexual men. Would like a sex education approach that is less factual and more dynamic to address 'more about what you actually do'.